The story (the plot and characters): The story starts with a structural mistake (IMO). It alternates through four POVs, one per chapter. There’s Beulah, a pubescent, carefree and wandering soul, daughter of Cora (the cheating wife); Cora, a timid weak woman; Nettie Mae, a stoic survivor of a somewhat abusive husband (the slain one); and Clyde, teenage son of Nettie Mae. IMO, this alternation in POVs every chapter creates a significant amount of repetition and drags the plot down with it. Mid-to-late book, I began to wonder: (1) if anything of interest was going to occur, and (2) if the story would ever end.

The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in such a harsh environment, how they cope with being totally isolated for months, how they discovered by working together they could survive the long winter, it's about forgiving someone who has betrayed you and giving them a second chance. This is a book that grabbed me from the the very first paragraph. It starts with a murder when one man goes down to the river and finds his wife with his neighbor. This leaves the two families living out on the Wyoming frontier without their men as winter is coming. The families are forced to come together to survive despite the dislike between them. Their farms are far from any other neighbors and without each other neither will make it.

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Wyoming, 1876. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn't think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse. The story is all about connections and the long-lasting consequences of the decisions people make when they lose connections. There's the connection between family members; the connections between neighbors/community members; the connection of humans and the natural world; and the connection of humans with the world after life has ended. For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children. The story line is that prairie neighbors the Bemis and the Webbers live out miles away from town. One of the dudes decides to bonk the other one's wife and ends up dead. Other daddy goes off to jail. Leaving the two women and children on their own. That's a pretty big deal in the time period...several things can kill you. Freezing, starving, your neighbor.... I am a fast reader, and I couldn't absorb the prose written in late-1800's vernacular, so I listened to much of the book. The narrator did a fine job reading until she got to the dialogue. Her voices for Beaulah and Clyde were very good. The voice of Nettie Mae was way too strident, making the character less likable. When reading Nettie Mae's thoughts and dialogue I had some empathy for her. Listening to the narrators depiction of her, she seemed less dimensional-- just a bitter, hateful woman. The voice of Cora made me cringe! It was horrible, vapid, falsetto fake. I swear my teeth hurt every time I heard the narrator recite Cora's dialogue!

This is a story about love and hate, but especially about life and death and the connection to nature. It's Historical Fiction at its finest! Clyde would have ridden up to the doctor’s house and said his neighbor had fallen from her horse and was unconscious.Wyoming, 1870. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse. The 16-year-old son of one and the 13-year-old daughter of the other join forces in an attempt to handle the farm work on each holding without the benefit of help from anyone else. The Bemis and Webber families rely on each other for survival. There’s no one else around, so they need each other. Ernest finds his wife, Cora, cheating with their neighbor, and now, Ernest is in prison with the two women left to survive on their own. It's set on the frontier, but it's not *about* the frontier, if that makes sense. It's about death--how people cope with it (or avoid coping with it) and how different religious or spiritual perspectives will influence one's ability to handle death (or not handle it) to varying degrees. It's also about humans finding their proper place *in* nature instead of trying to exist apart from nature. Two of their children are teenagers, though, and they fall in love. This relationship tests the women further.

After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold. The two women have to make it on their own. But honestly in my mind only one would have. Nettie Mae (the one who was cheated on) is the only one that had any dang sense. The other woman kinda pouts around and makes stupid decisions. Her daughter Beulah does most of the work but they keep talking about how flighty she is. I was confused. I loved the author's notes at the end of the book, but won't spoil things by revealing her inspiration for writing the story. It made the book even more wonderful in my eyes. I listened to the book. The narrator was great and helped to get the listener immersed into the story.

Speaking of characters, these are written very well. In fact, this book relies heavy on the characters and their thoughts and conversations to convey the story rather than big action scenes. Certainly there are things that happen that raise the suspense, but this story is carried by its characterization. This isn’t a story about that murder, although it happens early on and is felt throughout the story. This is a story of how two families with all of the tension and emotion in the world goes on to make it through the long, cold winter without the men of their houses. This is a story about the forgiveness that comes-or doesn’t come-after such sin. Sixteen-year-old Clyde Webber takes on the burden of the heavy work at both homesteads, much to the angst and disagreement of his mother, because he can see how much the Bemis family needs him. And Beulah Bemis, just thirteen, takes to helping him. Beulah is much stronger and dependable than she appears.